Murang’a police in the spotlight for controversial execution of two suspects

Monday, 13 March 2023

Police in Murang’a County are on the spot for the killing of two suspects in a confusing turn of events.

According to a narration by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), there was a fierce exchange of fire between the suspects, who had staged a robbery, and police officers.

The DCI said the suspects, part of a six-man gang, had staged a robbery at a Unaitas SACCO Mununga branch within Kigumo town on Friday, where they made away with an unknown amount of money after disarming a police officer and taking possession of his G3 rifle.

In response, the police launched a joint operation between officers drawn from Murang’a and Kiambu counties backed  up by an elite team from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau.

“The officers combed Kinyona forest before coming across the two who challenged them to a duel. What followed was a volley of fierce gunfire that brought the entire forest ecosystem to a standstill, as the officers returned,” the DCI, known for spiced-up narrations on social media, posted.

But while the narration spoke of a fierce gun fight, an earlier post by the DCI, now deleted, showed the two  suspects cuffed together under police custody.

In the previous post, the suspects were surrounded by multiple police officers in an unnamed location.

Kenyans have now called out the DCI for the unexplained turn of events that left the two suspects dead.

Many social media users have flooded the DCI’s social media accounts with queries of how the suspects managed to escape the police while cuffed and engaged them in a gun fight before being taken down.

The Kenyans have pointed fingers at the Directorate for possible extrajudicial killings, just months after President William Ruto said the vice would not be allowed to exist in his administration.

“The two robbery suspects were cornered, and arrested. Shortly after their arrest, DCI officers decided to execute them. DCI communication team went ahead and posted a cock and bull story online. They were killed in cold blood in a country that’s supposedly governed by rule of law,” human rights activist Boniface Mwangi opined.

On his part, Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai called for the ‘execution’ to be investigated.

Another Twitter user, Kiprono, termed the turn of events a mystery.